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View Full Version : 72-pin Connector: Carts that will bend it out of shape!



Jagasian
06-02-2005, 10:12 AM
Official NES carts have contacts that are roughly .045" thick, yet some carts, typically the unlicensed ones, use a contact thickness of .063". Carts that are known to use a thicker contact are: Codemasters games, the Game Genie, and the MIDINES 1.0. Using these carts will bend your toaster NES's 72-pin connector out of shape. Since they are thicker than the official carts, they will loosen the 72-pin connector enough to make it unable to properly grip your official NES carts which are thinner, at .045". So there was a grain of truth in those statements that Nintendo made about unlicensed carts damaging your NES. I always thought that they were full of it, but maybe they were referring to the carts' contact thickness issue.

One solution that some people have is to always use a Game Genie, but there are drawbacks to this. One of which is that there are games which do not run correctly through a Game Genie. A better solution would be to have two toaster NES's: one that you only use official thickness carts in and the other that you only use unofficial thickness carts in. Of course, this necessitates two NES's, which is a big drawback.

Maybe somebody could make a short passive adapter that goes from the too thick .063" to 0.45". Then the adapter would only need to be used on unofficial carts, so that these carts don't stretch the 72-pin connector out of shape. Either that or make an adapter that goes the other way, so that people with connectors that are already stretched out of shape can still use their official thickness boards. Does anybody know if such adapters already exist?

Anyway, it is something to be aware of, and along with not cleaning their carts and 72-pin connector, helps explain why so many people with toaster NES's have problems.

Bratwurst
06-02-2005, 11:58 AM
From a sampling of my 120 or so NES carts, digital and traditional calipers measuring in inches:

Metal Storm - Irem .047
Ice Hockey - Nintendo .055
Super Mario Bros. - Nintendo .038
Bucky O'Hare - Konami .052
Smash TV - Acclaim .046 (while licensed, Acclaim manufactured these cartridges themselves)
Gauntlet Black Unlicensed - Tengen .045

No contest on the Camerica and Game Genie boards being thicker, but there's too much variation between even Nintendo made carts imo. At some point the thinner PCBs lose out.

boozi2
06-02-2005, 03:12 PM
Damn, Bratwurst! What a psycho avatar you got :eek 2:

SuperShark
06-02-2005, 06:34 PM
Damn, Bratwurst! What a psycho avatar you got :eek 2:

First off, I MUST agree with this :eek 2: !!! I just never wanted to waist a post to tell that to you like boozi2 did. BTW, I have also been wanting to know if by any chance that baby face is a pic of the same baby that was on your old avatar that you had, the bratworst that had a baby face on it.

Secondly, I would like to say, Dangit Bratwurst, you are a freak! In one day you decided to check 120+ Nintendo carts just to prove or disprove what Jagasian said! You Freak! (However to be honest, I proably would have done that too if I had an electric measuring caliper, but proably not in one day! And I'd proably do it to Sega Genesis games first.)

Bratwurst
06-02-2005, 06:43 PM
Secondly, I would like to say, Dangit Bratwurst, you are a freak! In one day you decided to check 120+ Nintendo carts just to prove or disprove what Jagasian said!

No. I have about 120 Nintendo carts in a cabinet about five feet from my personal computer. Since I was home at the time I grabbed about 5 or 6 I remembered having varying widths.

Jagasian
06-02-2005, 06:51 PM
The question is, even though licensed games have varying thickness, are they thick enough to cause damage to the 72-pin connector? I am sure it was made to bend somewhat without damaging, as is the same with a paper clip, but just as with a paper clip I am sure that there is a point where you bend it so much that you cause permenant damage. Would Nintendo be so stupid as to license carts that would damage their own gaming system, causing a support nightmare?

I still believe using a Game Genie is asking for trouble. It is just way too thick to be safe. I have a "virgin" NES that I only use licensed games in and I don't have any problems assuming I clean the carts, and I have a beater NES that I will put anything in... and it needs to be bent back into shape as cleaning only helps a little.

Bratwurst
06-02-2005, 07:53 PM
They were aware of the toaster design issues and have pretty much admitted by now that it's not the best. In Nintendo Power articles, releasing the NES top loader, and even giving up free 72-pin connector replacements if you call up their service center and give the right answers to the right questions during troubleshooting. They still do this, incidentally.

I'm not so inclined to consider it stupidity as planned obsolescence. They knew the tradeoffs in the spring loading, it marketed well, didn't care because by the time it became a real problem en mass, the market had moved on.